Live fast, die young

It is finally starting to feel like summer. The sun is shining, the weather is heating up, and the humidity is not that bad yet. It’s a glorious Sunday for a graduation BBQ and a good way to celebrate Memorial Day Weekend. I’ve been sleeping with the windows open the past few days, and while I’ve been waking up to the birds singing, I haven’t heard many of the crickets. Soon though, they will come. The evening chorus will ring on and on in celebration of summer.

Like summer, crickets can’t go on forever. But new research indicates that crickets who live fast, die young. The resting metabolism of crickets determined their longevity. Calling crickets expend energy, which perhaps takes away from their overall energy budget for other activities. The research team suggests this may have an impact on their overall lifespan.

The results found that crickets with a higher resting metabolic rate have lower life expectancy. However, the link between mating calls and resting metabolic rate was not fully distinguished. While links between physiology and behavior have not been thoroughly explored, they are likely to be very important.

Read more about the article on Wired or for the full article, click here.